Green 2.0 is an initiative dedicated to increasing racial diversity across mainstream environmental NGOs, foundations and government agencies. The Green 2.0 working group advocates for data transparency, accountability and increased resources to ensure that these organizations increase their diversity.

The Goal

The most influential environmental NGOs and their funders will commit to and implement measures to scale up diversity, especially at the senior executive and board levels

Green 2.0 leaders are motivated by both:

A desire for a more diverse, environmental movement with less discrimination on its merits.

A movement that integrates equity into the work

The belief that these changes will better position organizations to win environmental battles and produce fairer environmental outcomes for those most impacted (people of color).

This effort is the result of a year of painstaking effort and is here to stay. Green 2.0 will push for increased accountability and work to ensure more diverse candidates are considered and represented at the highest in the mainstream environmental movement.

Green 2.0 will be a sustained drumbeat to move the environmental movement toward increased opportunities for people of color and a climate where talented people of color can thrive.

About the Report

Green 2.0 commissioned the report “The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations: Mainstream NGOs, Foundations &Government Agencies,” the most comprehensive report on diversity in the environmental movement. It surveyed 191 environmental non-profits, 74 government environmental agencies, and 28 leading environmental grant making foundations to investigate their gender and racial diversity composition, the majority of which state diversification as a “value.” The study included confidential interviews of 21 environmental leaders from diverse backgrounds and experience.

The Report is authored by Dorceta E. Taylor, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School of NaturalResources and Environment. Professor Taylor was the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change (Duke University Press, 2009). Her most recent book is Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility (New York University Press, 2014). Professor Taylor is the founder of the Minority Environmental Leadership and Diversity Initiative.